I didn’t really start travelling until my early thirties and since then, the idea of becoming a long-term traveller has become stronger. However, the only pro-active thing I did was browsing through few blogs and packing up my shelf with gap-year for grown ups books. Ocassionally, I used to mention my thoughts to Gary but, as I never came with a sound and realistic plan, the discussion usually vanished, leaving it as a dream to come true, perhaps, when we retire.
However, Gary resigned from his job for personal reasons in March 2014 and the conversation came up again. We both had well paid and secured jobs, we are not big spenders and have no children, we had managed to pay off the mortgage and had the ability of making some savings to afford a long trip.
As you probably already know, we both love travelling and trekking but we have very little time to do both because of work. We moved to the country side a couple of years ago, away from the hectic London but the quality of life we expected to gain never happened. In fact, we have worked longer hours than ever, ending up having shorter evenings and unproductive weekends because we were too tired to do anything. And yet, day after day, week after week, time went by at an unstoppable speed. All we were looking forward to was our next trip.
Although all the above may sound convincing enough to take this trip, I found it really hard to make the decision to do it. Who takes a ‘mid career’ gap year? Would it ruin our careers? Would we be able to find work when we came back? What if something goes horribly wrong? What if something happens to our family when we are away? Would we actually enjoy life ‘on the road’? Would we be safe? Could we really afford it? Would our house be destroyed by wayward tenants?
After a week of sleepless nights, fears and doubts, I finally resigned in May 2014 and we are setting off mid-August. Whether we are right or wrong, we don’t know, time will tell. However, whatever the outcome of this adventure might be, we both feel that we have made the right decision.
Your story’s familiar! I spent months stressing about all the things you’ve listed, and in the end I’m back in my old career, at pretty much the same level, making the same money (actually more as I’m contracting now) within 2 months of getting home. Enjoy your time out there guys, soak it up. Careers will easily kick start again if you want them to, your families will be fine (flights back home are easy to come back and fast if needed) and if you’re not liking life on the road, there are plenty of ways to change what you’re doing, we found new countries threw the zest back into it all sometimes. Have fun folks, and thanks for writing the blog, it’ll keep me going through another British winter! Cheers and hugs, Jay
Thanks for the support. We are really enjoying ourselves and looking forward to some more serious walking and climbing now we are near the pyrenees. What we really came for. Wouldn’t want to change anything at the moment!
Gary and Susana
Congratulations! What a great idea. There is nothing worse than “what if we had done this or the other”, just do it and you’ll have no regrets! Well done on making things happen!